Sad news from Shirley

[cakeicer]

I had a local police officer at my door at 9:30 this morning to tell me that my room mate Carolyn, her best friend Cathy and Carolyns dog Holly had been killed in a car accident in Mendocino yesterday afternoon on their way home from a camping trip. An idiot crossed over the double line and hit the car in front of Carolyn which in turn became airborne and hit the windshield and cab of Carolyns truck. Carolyn was then hit by the car behind her, it and Carolyns truck flipped over and caught fire. The bystanders tried to get them out of the truck but weren't able to save them.The driver who caused the accident got in his truck and told the bystanders that he was driving into town to bring help, he never came back and no one got his license plate number. There is an all points bulletin out for him, I hope they catch the bastard! I won't be posting or reading any posts for awhile, hope you all understand.

 

[Tom]

Shirley,

I am so sorry about the loss of your roommate and her friend and dog. I will say a prayer for all of you. May The Lord comfort you with his loving embrace during this loss.

God Bless you.

Tom

 

[Joe]

Shirley:
I send you all my sympathy. The holiday season is not the best season for this to happen. Take care! :|

 

[Rudy]

My sympathies as well, Shirl. I've been completely speechless, not knowing exactly what to say. It's rough being so close to the holidays--hang in there, talk to anyone who will listen, and keep the ol' chin up!

Lost a relative of ours a few years ago, around the same time of year. My grandfather had passed on, but my uncle kept the house. My grandmother's sister moved in, as did her "roommate", her niece (they were only about 10-12 years apart--her niece was well into her 70's). Her niece's bedroom was upstairs, and her niece liked candles. As you can probably guess, she dozed off with the candles burning. They found her in the closet, where she must have tried to escape the smoke.

My grandmother's sister never knew what was going on--someone was banging on the front door to tell her there was smoke coming out of the windows upstairs. (They ended up putting her into a senior apartment after that...she started having conversations with my grandmother, who'd been dead for five years... We never knew if it was from shock related to this incident, or if she was just going batty from old age.)

It's just more of a shock when it happens suddenly...and what's more, it was my grandfather's house. It wasn't damaged much (they basically had to re-do the upstairs, and fix the water-damaged plaster walls), but it just didn't seem the same anymore.

-= N =-

 

[cakeicer]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtfulness and kind words, we are getting through this but it's hard. Carolyn was only 53, too young to go and especially the way she did. They have had 3 leads with the sherfiffs dept. in Mendocino, so I hope they are closing in on this guy. Carolyns sister is planning a celebration of her life here at the house on the 14th, her family members are coming from all around the country and she had many good friends who have all shown up to offer assistance in all of the paper work, cooking and cleaning. A real blessing to the family.
Love all of you, and again thank you,

 

[Harry]

Shirley, please express our condolences from all of us here at the Corner to Carolyn's family, and know that we're "with you" at this sorrowful time.

Harry

 

[LPJim]

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. May the music of A&M and continued contact with the online community be a source of comfort during this time.
JB

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I also wish to send my condolences to you as well. I know how tough that is. I lost my fiancee years ago in a similar situation.

At the same time, I'm trying to figure out just what the bystanders were thinking by letting the culprit go and "get help". An alarm should've gone off in somebody's head on that one. Hopefully, he'll soon be caught and dealt with in an appropriate manner!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

I've only met Shirley once and that was last year in Glendale, CA for the Julius Tribute. I've been telling people about Shirley's personal loss like we've been friends for years. But because of the A&M Corner at some level we have all been friends for years. Peace be with you Shirley. Jay

 

[Stephen Vakil]

Shirley

Very sad to read of your loss. My thoughst are with you.

Best

Stephen

 

[cakeicer]

Because of all of the sweet and thoughtful responses from each of you I thought I would update this and let you know that I just heard from Carolyns sister and the authorities have changed Carolyns cause of death from "Under investigation" to "Homicide", this makes me think the guy who caused this will really be looking over his shoulder now. They have tried to question a man from that area but he refused to answer questions without an attorney present. That tells me he has something to hide, maybe if this makes the papers up there someone who suspects him will come forward with enough information that will allow him to be charged and arrested. They have not been able to locate his truck, I am thinking he has probably dumped it over a cliff or in the water somewhere. Don't know how he sleeps at night knowing he killed two people and a little dog.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Sounds like things are slowly progressing toward some kind of resolution in this case. If a person had nothing to hide, he wouldn't hesitate to cooperate. It seems that persistence is finally beginning to pay off...the guy will eventually crack, I'm sure. In the meantime, hang in there...I'm sure all of us Cornerites are firmly behind you. This is good news!

Dan, still hungry for cake...